Finished Preschool room

Preschool Room before
Preschool after

The finished product

Wow! We finally finished our basement that we have been working on for the past 4 months. It has been a huge project that seemed like we would never be able to accomplish. In the end we have become amazed that we could actually create a living space with our own 2 hands and hard work. We have had a lot of help from family and friends and are truly grateful to them for all their time and effort to help us. We would have never made our deadline without them.
This whole project started when a women in our ward said that a Japanese Women and her daughter wanted to come and live here for the school year, but would like more of a place of their own. We had been wanting to make an apartment anyway, so this was the perfect opportunity to actually do it, and we felt it was worth while since it would bring in rent for a side income.
Then in the middle of our project for the apartment, I was offered to take over a preschool for someone who got a full time teaching job. We felt good about the opportunity to teach in our home and have another side income, so we said yes. I only made this decision after asking my sister in law, Meg, if she wanted to do it with me, so that she could teach one class and I could teach the other and she could help when my baby comes. She was very excited about the idea, so everything fell into place. This meant finishing an additional room for the preschool on top of the apartment we were already working on. We only had 4 weeks to complete this room and then 3 more after that to finish the apartment. I was stressing the whole time that it could not be done, but after we finished the preschool room on time and I saw that it could happen, I had faith that it would all come together. Wow, what an accomplishment. Hats off to my husband Budd, who worked every spare minute to make it all happen. I was amazed at his skill and inventiveness to make everything work, when problems arouse.
Here are a few pics of the before and after. The before are actually when we had already done drywall and mudding, but I forgot to take the pictures when it was just studs.
We are so happy with how it turned out and feel blessed to have these two opportunities in our basement.'

Apartment kitchen/front room before:



Apartment Kitchen/front room after

Bathroom
bath

Family in AZ

We had a fun trip to Aspen Grove with Budd's family the first week of June. Two weeks later we found out that Budd's Mom, who has had lung cancer, now has brain cancer. We of course rushed down to Arizona the next day to be with the family. We had a great week with everyone. We were able to have a lot of neat experiences and spend a ton of time with family. The neatest thing was when all of Budd's siblings and their spouses and Mom and Dad went to the Temple and did sealings. We had such an amazing spiritual experience all being there together. We were also able to spend a whole day together with the entire family swimming and playing and getting family photos. The rest of the week we spent mostly at Budd's parents just hanging out and being with them. The kids really enjoyed being with their cousins and swimming a lot. Brinlee even started to learn to swim without floaties and she was so excited. She even put her head under water for the first time and learned it was fun. That was a big deal for her. We really had a great time and created precious memories!

Girls Camp

I was called as Girls Camp director this year, before I knew I was pregnant, and ended up going 61/2 month pregnant. But I really had a great time. Even though I was stressed to leave a sick husband and kids behind, it ended up being a great break for me. We went to Star Valley Wyoming for 4 days and it was so beautiful. We were able to go river rafting one day and it was a blast except that is started raining while we were going down the river. It got really cold and I ended up with a horrible cough. But it was worth it for a great adventure. I had so much fun getting to know the girls and to just spend time with the girls being fun and crazy. We had some really neat spiritual moments also as we went on a sunrise hike and posted our flag of virtue, did a blind folded ropes course, and had many devotionals. What a neat experience it turned out to be and I think it was more for me than the girls. It was something I really needed. I was glad it all turned out well and all the planning paid off.

Summer Fun

Here is an update of our summer. It sure flew by. In July we had a Japanese women (Chiho) and her 5 daughter (Rina) stay with us for a month. We did a lot of fun things with the kids on the weekend, like going to children's museums, swimming, and much more. Brinlee loved having a friend all the time and she and Rina became the best of friends. Chiho was very nice and helpful. Since I am pregnant she would hardly let me do anything and she helped make dinner and clean the house every night. What a treat for me. We had a great experience with them and really do hope to be able to go visit them in Japan in a few years.

Aspen Grove: Excited about a Fish

One evening at Aspen Grove we went fishing with all the kids. Caylin got the first catch and the kids all went crazy over the fish. Here is some of their reaction.

More pics of Aspen Grove

Spencer and Brayden being Pirates
Swimming with the beautiful mountains in the background
Mommy and Spencer
Brinlee and Madelyn dancing
Family at Aspen Grove